Bend before Prema and Sathya

Sparks from Discourses of Sathya Sai Baba during Shivaratri, March 1963
Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust
Web posted at Jan 13, 2001

Do not grieve that the Lord is testing you and putting you to the ordeal of undergoing them. For, it is only when you are tested that you can assure yourself of success or become aware of your limitations. You can then concentrate on the subjects in which you are deficient and pay more intensive attention, so that you can pass in them too, when you are tested again. You should not study for the examination at the last moment; study well in advance and be ready with the needed knowledge and the courage and confidence born out of that knowledge and skill. What you have studied well in advance must be rolled over and over in the mind, just previous to the examination; that is all that should be done, then. This is the pathway to victory.

Many grieve: "It is said that Darshanam (getting the audience) is Paapanaashanam (destruction of sin); well, I have had Darshan not once but many times, but, yet, my evil fate has not left me and I am suffering even more than formerly." True, they have come and have had Darshan and they have sowed fresh seeds secured from this place, seeds of Prema (love), Shraddha (faith), Bhakthi (devotion), Sathsanga (good company), Sarveshwarachintha (godly thoughts), Naamasmarana (remembering God's name), etc., and they have learnt the art of intensive cultivation and soil-preparation. They have now sown the seeds in the well-prepared fields of the cleansed hearts. Now, until the new harvest comes in, they have to consume the grain already stored in previous harvests. The troubles and anxieties are the crop collected in previous harvests; so do not grieve, and lose heart.

In this sacred land, people have forgotten the real source of sacredness, of holy life, of living in peace with oneself and others. Now, the time has come to remind them of it. With jewels in the neck, the wearer has been searching for it everywhere else. A person has to hold the mirror to the face. The Vedhic clarion call will soon ring in the ears of humanity. The person has come to remind man and to redirect him along the true path.

If any one challenges you to show them one text where the principles of Sanaathana Dharma (eternal religion) are succinctly stated, tell them about the Bhagavath Geetha. It is the essence of the Vedhas (scriptures of eternal truths) and the Shaasthras and the Puraanas. It is like a bottle of fruit-juice obtained from a basket of fruit. It will not get dry or rot like the fruits, for the juice has been well extracted and preserved. Its taste and excellence will persist until the end of this Yuga (Age) and then it will merge in the Vedhas.

In the forest of Samsaara (worldly life), the body is a tree and the thoughts, feelings and imaginations of man are the branches, twigs and leaves. Worry, anxiety and fear are the monkeys that frisk among the branches. Grief in its various forms represents the insect pests that destroy the blooms. The blossoms are smiles; the owls and crows that infest it are anger, hatred, sloth and spite!

The sun never rises or sets; it appears to rise and appears to set, on account of the revolution of the earth! What happens when the sun rises is that the Avyaktha (invisible) becomes Vyaktha (visible), that is all. This series of Udhaya (rising) and Asthamana (setting) of the sun exists only for those who feel it and does not exist for those who deny it. The duality of appearance and non-appearance can be overcome by Jnaana; so also, when the Jnaana-bhaaskara (sun of knowledge) is known, it is experienced as shining always with undiminished lustre.

Lingam means simply "the sign", "the symbol"; it is just a mark, which indicates merging (laya); that is to say, the passing away of the mind and all mental agitations and all mental pictures, which means, this objective world. Shivaraathri is the day on which the moon, the presiding deity of the mind, is as near Laya as possible and so, just a little extra effort that day leads to full success; the Saadhaka can thereby achieve complete Manonaashana (destruction of the mind). The realisation is that everything is subsumed in the Lingam (the symbol of the formless).

God is a huge fire, and the sparks that fly out from it are the Jeevis (individual souls); the Jeevis are infinitesimal fractions of the same effulgence, having the same splendrous essence as their base; but, the wind of Vaasanas (impressions left on the mind by past actions) sweeps upon the sparks and puts out the light and destroys the heat. But, the same wind cannot put out the fire, it can only feed it further and cause its splendour to shine forth in even greater measure, for, the Sankalpa (Will) of the Lord can only add to His glory.

Just as the dreams you see are shaped by the experiences, craving and disappointments of the waking stage, the experiences of the waking stage are the results of your previous lives. While dreaming, you do not relate the incidents and emotions to the waking stage, do you? You feel they are un-related, unique, genuine experiences, is it not? So too, you do not realise that your joy and grief, your actions and reactions in the waking stage are all based on your past lives. But, they are so based.

A great painter once came to a Prince and offered to do a fresco on the palace wall; behind him came another, who declared that he would paint on the wall opposite, whatever painting the first one drew, even if a curtain hid it from view and even if he was not told the subject of the fresco! Both were commissioned to the tasks they had accepted. The second man finished his work at the very moment, the first one announced that he had completed the task! The Prince arrived in the hall, where a thick curtain partitioned off the two artists and their paintings. He saw the fresco and admired it very much. Then he ordered that the curtain be removed, and lo, on the wall facing the fresco, there was an exact duplicate of the picture that the first man had so laboriously painted! Exact - because, what he had done was, polishing the wall and making it a fine big mirror! Make your hearts too clean and pure and smooth, so that the glory of the Lord might be reflected therein, so that the Lord might see His own Image thereon.

The players do not derive as much joy as the onlookers; so develop the attitude of the onlooker, the witness (the Dhrashta). The batsmen, bowlers and fieldsmen do not get a fraction of the pleasure that the 'fans' beyond the boundary, derive. They note each fault and excellence in stroke and defence; they appreciate the finer points of the game. So too, to get the maximum joy out of this game of living, one should cultivate the attitude of the onlooker, even when one has to get embroiled in the game.

I will not bend before any one for anything. I am therefore un-afraid. I bend for Prema, I bend before truth, that is all. Do not worry about worldly comforts and ask Me about those things as if they are all-in-all. Do not waste your precious life-time in distracting doubts about the existence of the Lord in human form, here and now. Cultivate Prema towards all; that is the greatest service you can do to your self for, all others are but you yourself. You too should bend, only before Prema and Sathya, not before hatred and cruelty and falsehood.